Discovering Normal (24 page)

Bryan
steadied himself and paid no heed to the army behind him--ready to take him away because he couldn’t bring himself to listen. He advanced with a smirk and Beth aimed.

“Stop, Bryan. I don’t want to hurt you, but I can and I will.”

He shook his head and continued to advance. “You shant.”

Beth
nodded a coy nod.
“I shall.”

He stopped then, looked to the heavens with those ridiculous raised arms once again. “I am The Most Masterful
!
I am beyond harm from bullets of steel or vices of earth!”

But Beth couldn’t let him win.
“But your father died from a bullet, Bryan. You watched him.”

His eyes turned to slits as he met hers. “You question my father, The Great One
,
who was only foolish and weak for but a moment because he loved thee.”

She shook her head, cocked the gun and prayed for strength.

And then in an orchestrated move, Bryan lunged to grab Joanna
once again
. He obviously hadn’t thought about it, because if he had, he would’ve realized even in his psychotic mind, that a psychopath without a weapon had precious little power.

But when he hurled the bleeding girl toward the edge of the ravine, Beth shot, blew his leg, tugged Joanna’s wrap so she smashed to the rock near Chris, and then
Beth
watched Brian Holden fall into the vastness below as she listened to his very human scream on the way down.

She
stood motionless and frozen as the echo finally disappeared after the smallest, most innocuous of splashes.

At that very moment what few of Bryan Holden’s faithful
who
remained standing, fell to their knees. One large guard who had helped to haul her here took her hand and gave it a fluttery kiss. Beth looked around at the surreal moment and felt like Dorothy in the
Wizard of Oz
after the witch melted.

She
snapped back to the moment and scurried to George who was now unconscious and bleeding from his neck. Deej was radioing.

“George,” Beth whispered near his ear. “I’m so sorry.”

She felt Deej’s palm against her back.

“You did great, Bethie.”

Beth stood up and pushed the heel of her hand to her eye. “I got him
shot;
because of me Joanna was almost killed. I didn’t help Chris--”

Deej grasped her arms and turned her. “They’re all alive because of you. Give yourself a second and then you’ll realize it too.”

He pulled her tight and Beth let him. She allowed herself to wad what little of his camouflage jacket she could budge into her hand and cried on his enormous shoulder.

Men bearing stretchers appeared and
darted
down the narrow stairs. Some paused at George, some hurried to Joanna, some to Chris. Then there were more, grabbing men who were down and hoisting them; listening for heartbeats and shaking their head over others.

It was carnage.

Beth looked at Chris, his arm dangling
off of
the side
of the stretcher
as they carried him by
,
and she knew it was salvation as well.

She watched him go and couldn’t help but notice that his wedding band was gone.

Chapter 25

Beth wrapped her hair in a towel and stepped into her
heeled
boots
, zipping them over her jeans
. She could hear Deej’s voice in a conference room on the other side of the suite. She wanted desperately to call the kids, but he’d advised her to wait just a bit more until they had accurate information about Chris.

She pulled on a cardigan sweater, grabbed a brush and wandered into the room manned with dozens of phones
, computers
and television monitors. She received polite smiles as she made her way, brushing her hair and relishing the clean she felt after so long.

Deej hung up as she neared him. “George is out of surgery. It missed his carotid. He lost a lot of blood, but it looks like he’s going to pull through.”

“Thank God.” Beth slid a hip onto the table. “Joanna?”

“Her parents are en route. They’ll be at her side in few hours.”

“Does she need deprogramming?”

“Most likely, but she seems to be remembering more than you did.”

Beth looked down at her unpolished nails. “I never do anything halfway.”

Deej bumped her with his shoulder. “Aren’t you going to ask me about Chris?”

Beth looked up and met his gaze.

“He’s
severely
dehydrated, he has pneumonia,
four broken ribs and
he’s lost about
eighty
pounds, but he’s alive, Bethie.”

She couldn’t think of the future, couldn’t even think of the past. She needed her kids, her life, her sanity. “I’m going to call Noah and Audrey now.”

Deej nodded and stood up. He handed her the receiver, but held on for a moment more. “We found out who was helping Holden. Does the name
Peter Dennison
ring a bell?”

“Mr. Dennison? He owned the next farm down from ours. He’s about
s
e
vent
y
-five-y
ears-old and loved my cinnamon rolls.”

“He was Bryan Holden’s informant. Looks to be for about
six
years now.”

“Oh my God! Are you sure?”
             
“Positive. Found a bank statement with a hefty transfer around that time and supplement
al
payments up until August of this year. He was watching you, sweetie.”

Deej patted her shoulder and left the room, leaving her alone with the phone that could deliver her to her children.

***

Chris opened his eyes and saw cleanliness and white and a colorful arrangement of flowers near his bed. The sweet floral smell was the first pleasant aroma he’d encountered in a very long while.

He focused and saw a p
hoto
of Noah and Audrey on the bedside table.

Thank God he remembered them.

A nurse stood at his side, listening and counting the beats of his heart. She smiled when she noticed
that
he was awake and laid his wrist back to his side. “Well, hello,” she said with a little accent.

“Hi.”

She plumped the pillow behind him. “How are you feeling?”

“Hungry I think.”

“Excellent. I’ll see if the doctor wants this IV drip left in place or if we can remove it now. I’ll be right back.”

Chris watched her go and tried to figure out exactly where he was. A minute later the door pushed open and Deej, his old friend, peeked around the panel.

“Are you conscious?”

“Barely. Come on in.”
Chris attempted to sit up, found it a struggle and laid back again.

Deej slid onto the thick mattress at Chris’ side. “You, my friend, sure know how to lean heavy on the drama.”

“Sorry.”

“Do you remember anything?”

“I think so. Though some of it is foggy and some of it may be stuff they wanted me to think happened.”

“Do you remember being grabbed?”

“Yeah, and the note. Christ, you guys thought I was dead
?
”

Deej gently slugged Chris’ arm.
“A couple of times.”

“Noah and Audrey?”

“As far as I know, they were never told. Beth talked to them earlier today. They’re excited to see you.”
             
“When can I leave?”
             
Deej smiled and pulled a toothpick out of his jacket pocket. “Never were terribly patient if I recall correctly.”

“I think I’ve earned the right to see my kids.”

“And you will. But you need to spend a little more time being evaluated. They don’t want post-traumatic stress syndrome to rear its ugly head a year down the road.”

“Christ, Deej. I just wanna go home.”

“I know, buddy.” Deej
left the toothpick to dangle in his mouth and crossed his arms.
“Do you by any chance remember who saved your ass?”

Chris looked to the window at the brilliant ray of light peeking in. “Where the hell am I anyway?”
             
Deej gnawed on the toothpick. “Sweden, and you didn’t answer my question. Do you remember how you got out of there, who took Bryan Holden down?”

Chris turned to face him.

“Your wife.”

Chris closed his eyes. “I thought so.”

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“You’re not gonna just forget that are you?”

Chris looked at his friend of close to twenty years. “She was the one who wanted out. She was the one who couldn’t be happy. That’s one of the few things that I remember with crystal clarity.”

A doctor who looked like the proverbial blonde Swede pushed his way into the room. “Hello! Glad to see you alert.”

Deej stood up as the doctor swooped in to listen to Chris’ heart, look in
to
his eyes, ears, nose and mouth
and made him cough with a tap to his back
.

“I think we can remove the intravenous drip and let you have some scrumptious hospital fare.” He let the stethoscope fall to his chest. “There’s a lovely woman waiting in the corridor who’d like a moment of your time.”

Chris glanced at Deej, at the image
of his kids and back to the doctor. “Is it my wife?”

The doctor was grinning a stupid grin. “I believe so.”

“Tell her I don’t want to see her.”

The doctor’s grin disappeared in a second flat.

Deej shook his head, stood up and walked
through the door.

             
             
             
             
             
***

Beth wrung her hands together and nodded. “I understand.”

Deej snatched a Styrofoam cup and poured coffee from a carafe in the lobby. “Could that guy be any more stubborn?”

Beth smiled because of course he couldn’t be. “I can’t even blame him. He’s been through so much.”

“So have you
!
So have we all
!
He could at least take a minute to say thank you for saving his pigheaded ass.”

Beth stood up. “Some things change, some things don’t.”

Deej flopped onto a worn lobby chair. “Carrie Anne Heasley is on her way to deprogramming at the Institute. Turns out it was all a lie. She’s not pregnant at all, thank God. But poor Joanna King wasn’t as lucky. She had her baby this morning.”

“I heard. I’m heading up there now, and then in to see George.” Beth planted a kiss on Deej’s ample cheek. “Thank you for everything.”
             
“You did it, sweetie. You broke through.”

Beth shrugged because there was nothing to say to that. She’d never felt like more of a failure. She punched the elevator button and rode up two floors.

Joanna King was sitting up in bed surrounded by flowers and family. She tilted her head when Beth entered as if she almost knew her and then turned her attention away once again.

“Hell
o,” Beth said as she stepped in with a gentle knock.
“I’m Beth Stoddard--”

The person she recognized from photos as Joanna’s mother leapt to her feet and threw her arms around her.
“How can we ever thank you?”
             The woman pulled away and Beth glanced around at the gleaming eyes. “I just did what anyone in the same circumstance would.”

“We understand that your husband was held as well. Is he all right?”

Beth sucked in a breath. “He’s doing well thank you.”

The woman tugged her arm and pulled her toward the other waiting family members. “This is m
y husband and my other daughter Melanie and her husband
Jim.” A young man stood up and shook Beth’s hand.

“Melanie and Jim are taking the baby.”

Beth studied Joanna’s sister who looked so much like her. Nestled in her arms was a bundle of pink. Beth peeked into the blanket at the perfect little features of a baby girl. She touched the wisps of her sandy-colored hair. “She’s just beautiful.”